The Break
by realTheQ
Summary: Jaune Arc, the seeming everyman has suddenly found himself locked behind bars in the top prison of Atlas. Convicted of the dual murders of Pyrrha Nikos and Whitley Schnee, he has no hope of parole and has to make the best of his time among his fellow inmates. Prison AU, minor sexual and drug references, polygamy, and lots of real research.
1. Chapter 1

RWBY is owned by RT and Monty Oum

I don't own RWBY blah blah blah something something Critics United blah

Special thanks to Kronosmond for beta reading the story and acknowedging all the ideas flowing for this novel.

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The Break: Chapter 1

I didn't pay much attention to Jaune at first when he walked out of the prison bus into Säbelzahn Maximum Security Prison. He looked like your typical Atlesian Master Race member with golden blonde hair, sea-blue eyes, standing roughly 6 feet tall wearing jeans with tears and a hoodie with a cute bunny on it. My friend Blake, my step-sister Yang, and I were talking amongst ourselves, casting bets on which prison newbie would break first.

"I bet you a flower and a mushroom that blonde guy will be the first to break." I cast out uncaringly, just taking in the details of other prisoners.

"Good choice, but I have to say that the fourth one from the front will break first for 5 flowers." Blake casted, "Yang, who do you think's going to break first in this line of new prisoners?"

We waited a minute for Yang to scrutinize the crowd and make her ultimate decision. "That red-head with mascara, he'll break by listening to the guard, ten leaves and a mushroom." Yang finally replied.

"Isn't that Torchwick?" I asked.

"Guess so, his break will be so satisfying." Yang replied.

"Getting confident are we?" Blake asked, smirking at Yang.

"I've won this game for 6 straight years. I bet I'm subconsciously influencing people to break." Yang joked back.

We watched as all of the members entered the Säbelzahn main building, which was the area where the prisoners were introduced to Headwarden Ozpin. Ozpin gives them a short speech about their new life, before they are stripped, washed down, and all crevices are checked for contrabands, regardless of gender or age. After this, the prisoners are violently beaten until their aura breaks. It's enough to keep you alive, but low enough so the guards only have to hit you one or two times to knock you unconscious. I could tell Ozpin really didn't like to do it from when I came in, but he's been in a very tight spot with Jacquess for some time now, so I really can't blame him. I guess while we're waiting for the Newbies to finish getting their talk and spray-down, I'll tell you a bit about Yang and Blake.

Yang is my step-sister, and she was sent here to Säbelzahn a full year before me at the age of 21. She had just gotten her license and was busy at Junior's bar; trying to get information about a very specific missing person case. As soon as he saw the picture though, he immediately refused to help her, which led to Yang grabbing his… Well I guess I shouldn't say it out loud, but Yang went into a full-on rage after he continued to refuse helping, one thing led to another, and before you could say, 'Kick the semester off with a Yang!' There were at least 30 civilians dead, three Aura-users injured, and Junior's Bar (Which happened to be a large sponsor of the Schnee Dust Empire) brought down to rubble. Jacquess was not impressed by this and immediately sent Yang here on charges of property damage, local terrorism, and murder after revoking her huntress license.

Blake's been in here ever since I was training to go to Beacon. She was part of the White Fang, a once mighty force which in recent times diminished due to tons of the Faunus going to prison. Blake and her then partner Adam were busy sabotaging a Schnee Dust cargo train. Their plan was to blow up a train car, stopping it and stealing the shipments of Dust. However their plan worked a bit too well and the entire train blew up since you know, DUST IS HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE AND WILL EXPLODE FROM THE SLIGHTEST BREEZE! I KNOW FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE! Anyway, the train crashed, and Adam and Blake were separated in the explosion. Blake was knocked unconscious at the scene, and soon after the police came in to investigate the train wreck, they came to the natural conclusion that the Faunus with the WF emblem near the crash site must've done something to trigger it. Blake still talks to Adam in prison courtesy of the Scroll I snuck in for her, and she constantly tells him things like, 'It wasn't your fault.', and 'I don't blame you.' and 'We can have a hot threesome with this blonde bombshell after we get out'. Shortly after we became close friends in prison, Blake likened herself to jailbait when she first came in, which did make sense considering she said she was 14 when she was sent here. That's ironic, the girl most guys would risk going to prison ended up there herself.

* * *

Looks like the Newbies are finally out. After the cleaning process, they're in the nude like a new-born child and are sent to their respective cells. If they don't do it right the first time, they're beaten with a cane, crop, mini-sledgehammer, or even their bare hands. Most of them end up stuck with another veteran prisoner, few are lucky enough to be the one person in their cell. It's a lonely way to spend time in prison, but it's better than having to watch your back to prevent getting shived in the back. Jaune was lucky enough to end up being the only one in his cell.

"636? Damn it, I don't want to have to remember counting that high." I heard him grumble as he walked past my cell, his pile of clothes fortunately keeping anything from spilling out.

At least he gets a corner cell, Cell 636 and a few select others are the best ones in Säbelzahn. You've only got one annoying neighboring inmate to deal with instead of two. I've seen inmates that _killed_ just to try and get in the corner.

A full night and another dreamless sleep later, it was time for breakfast. We prisoners are pretty much fed the food that comes out of the dumpsters of orphanages. No gluten, no fruit, no vegetables, not even any real sugar, just a bland, gray, viscous thing that probably works better as cement than food. We occasionally got meat in it, and feast on it like Beowolves on vermin, despite the odd coincidence of babies disappearing and meat appearing in the food getting a little too close for comfort.

"Pay up sis, you owe me." Yang said with a toothy grin, having won our previous bet from yesterday.

"I swear to Oum Yang, you've got to be hiding a divination device somewhere." I mumbled under my breath, handing Yang 5 flowers, 12 leaves, and 2 perfectly proportioned mushrooms.

"Awesome, Mama Yang's going to see through time." The blonde said while staring her newly acquired treasures.

"If you give me some, it'll be more than time you'll see through." Blake replied with a seductive look in her eye.

"Come on guys, don't be so lewd, remember-"

"Don't lewd the Newb, yeah we got it a long time ago. No one ever acknowledges its existence though." Yang said, stating the truth and facts.

We soon had a local distraction, the Master Race guy happened to come by and sit at our table. Yang and I both acknowledged him for a few seconds before looking away back to our gray gunk. Blake on the other hand suddenly seemed more interested in the newcomer's gray mass. We soon found out why after he pulled a finger out of his gruel. Blake got all wide-eyed, and lurched across the table straight up in his face.

"Are you going to eat that?" She asked in a demanding tone.

"Wasn't planning to-" Before the boy could finish what he was going to say, Blake snatched the digit off of his fork and raced back to her usual eating spot. The blue-eyed boy kept moving his eyes from Blake to the finger, probably thinking she was going to eat it, but instead, Blake pulled away her jacket to reveal a baby crow in her pocket.

"His name's Qrow, I found him while the field was down. We're all going to raise him until he's old enough to fly." She said as she carefully cut the finger into smaller pieces and down Qrow's throat they went.

The blonde raised his eyebrows, "We?" he inquisitively pondered.

I decided to capitalize on that moment to introduce our group to him. "She's talking about me, her, and Yang." I said pointing to each respective person. "I'm Ruby, the blonde is my sister Yang, the cat-girl is her partner Blake, and that's Qrow named after my uncle Qrow. What's your name?"

After getting his head around what I said, he started his introduction, "Well the name's Jaune Arc. Short, swe-"

"No way! YOU'RE the guy who killed Pyrrha?!" Yang asked, somehow furrowing her brow even more than she had been.

"Well, that's what they say-"

"Guess I should call ya ' _Lady Killer_ ' now shouldn't I?" Yang interrupted sardonically.

It was at that moment that I just slapped hand to my face, both in exasperation at Yang's pun and her sheer bad manners.

"You really don't have to-"

"So _Lady Killer_ , why'd you kill the lady?" Yang inquired, propping her head on her arm.

We saw Jaune visibly tense up when asked this question, before he relaxed and replied with, "I didn't kill her." Before getting up and walking away.

"Yang, that was rude, did you really have to ask that?" I asked my step-sister.

"Well you have to agree with me, there's no possible way that lank could've killed the 7-time Mistral Champion, there's just no way. Also, _'I didn't kill her?'_ Talk about a cliché answer. That asshole's not ' _innocent_ ' like he claims." Yang argues back.

"Isn't everyone in here innocent?" I was silently pleading at this point to get them to stop their attitude.

"I have to agree with her Ruby." Blake adds. "Unless Nikos wasn't paying attention, there's no way he could've gotten behind her back. Even if he could, she should've been able to defend herself."

"Why do you guys think he killed her?" I asked the two, trying to shift the subject away to something different.

"I'll try and remember the gossip, but it wasn't one person Rubes, it was two, Pyrrha AND the former heir to the SDE. I think it said that Lady Killer murdered the two because he was upset that Pyrrha left him for the heir, and just decided to kill them both for revenge." Yang said with a serious undertone in her voice.

"There were news reels from both the VNN and ABC, both of them had their differences in the perspectives of what fueled him to do it, but the undeniable proof reported was that there was a chainsaw and non-metallic arrows, stained with the blood of Schnee and Nikos, inside the trunk of the car he was sitting and drinking in. To think he went with weapons that directly countered her semblance shows his dedication of wanting to kill her." Blake elaborated.

"I thought Pyrrha was killed by a nutbag stalker that had maiden powers and pyrokinetic thingies and Whitley was killed by a lumbering Faunus who had an extreme vendetta on the Schnee family?" I asked, recalling my memory on the article I read.

"Sis, that was Faux News, literally like the name suggests, it's joke news. You need to stop watching it and get with the real programs."

"That's what you said when they reported that the Dragon Grimm came from the moon, and then look what happened!"

"That was just a coincidence!"

"Personally, I can understand why Pyrrha left him." Blake intervened. "I mean, 'Lady Killer' isn't much to look at, even compared to other stick-figured inmates. I'd immediately go out with an heir over him if I hadn't met Yang here." Blake added, a shining look of lust in her eyes as she and Yang had a fierce staring contest.

"…I'll go talk to Jaune later and hear his side of the story. He's got to talk to someone soon about it. He's just got to." I said, walking away from the table, but not before I was out of hearing range from Yang.

"Bet you 6 Leaves he's not going to talk to anyone for at least a week." Yang had cast her next bet, maintaining the staring a few seconds longer before she flew forward and crashed her mouth against Blake, starting a tongue-war in their mouths. I'll never figure out how anyone can find that sexy.

* * *

A/N

There's some terminology that needs to be acknowledged;

ABC: The Atlesian Broadcasting Corporation is the main news reel of Atlas, and was the first to report on the death of the Heir Whitley Schnee. ABC mainly commented on what happened at the crime scene, with forensic experts giving their two cents at what happened and how the people were killed in all the gruesome details. ABC has also been criticized time and time again, namely due to the skewered perspectives of certain news articles and accusations of favorable bias towards the upper-Atlesian class.

Break: Break in prison terms is when someone loses it and has a psychotic fit/complete mental breakdown before being violently beaten up by the guards before finally finding their place and integrating into prison society. It can be either long-term or short-term, but it always happens to one new prisoner within the day they arrive. Most veteran prisoners can tell who'll break first just by looking at them. _Cough, Yang, cough_.

Currency conversion: There are 6 Leaves to a Flower, and 6 Flowers to a Mushroom. Säbelzahn currency rates consistently have a 'base-3' conversion method regardless of influx from one supply to another. Every item that is traded or traded for is analyzed by Ruby, and she makes a decision of the prices based on details that she can get from her scroll.

Faux News: Faux News is widely considered a 'joke' news outlet, similar to The Onion. It is often mocked by many people and even ABC once upon a time. The people behind it always come up with the wackiest theories/perspectives possible, regardless on the seriousness of the original subject. It's also the only news outlet Ruby actually pays attention to, much to the chagrin of her sister Yang.

Flowers: The first ever form of currency in Säbelzahn created by Ruby Rose. Prisoners can exchange items for flowers for their hallucinogenic purposes or vice-versa to request items from Ruby. Flowers can be found in the same places as Leaves, in the trees and bushes outside of the perimeter. These are also Ruby's default exchange stock, but if the cost/exchange of an item is not divisible by 6, she'll use Leaves for the remainder.

Leaves: The lowest form of currency, but one of the highest in demand. You can find leaves just by scouting out under trees or bushes located a little bit out of the perimeter of the fence. There's high risk involved, and you have only 4 minutes and to dash out and collect as many unbroken leaves as you can get before you're caught outside between a rock and a hard place (Rock being the walls, hard place being the fence).

Mushrooms: The most valued currency supply in the entire exchange, but never actually used for their original purposes. Mushrooms are very easy to come by, and grow pretty much everywhere on the prisons internal and external perimeter. However there is a very long and difficult process to neutralize the catalyst toxin (Which invokes the reaction that causes death in users that eat, snort, or smoke it) from the mushroom itself, this is why Ruby doesn't generally like dealing with Mushrooms and would much rather make exchanges with Leaves and Flowers. Mushrooms only have any value because of the aesthetics, and serve no actual functionality (It's a bragging right, like owning a Porsche or iPad Pro).

SDE: The Schnee Dust Empire is much more than just a company now. Led by Head Executive and Dictator Jacquess Schnee, the Schnee name has left an influence on every possible marketing branch in every kingdom on Remnant. The SDE is a corporate giant, which has not only made its mark on the supplies of Remnant, and is also a very prevalent force not just in Atlesian government, but in the entire governmental streams of the world.

VNN: The Vale News Network also reported the deaths of Pyrrha and Whitley, unlike ABC though which just reported on what happened at the crime scene and the lives of the people murdered (Which led to subsequent controversy that ABC cared more about the personal lives of celebrities than the fact that they are no longer living), VNN put more effort into trying to figure out why their own Jaune Arc organized and executed the murders by conducting interviews on friends, family, and other people who saw and talked to Jaune before the deaths occurred. VNN has a much cleaner record than ABC, but it is still subject to fall into degrees of bias, especially disfavoring the Atlesian upper-class, which often results in conflict between the two world news outlets.


	2. Chapter 2

**RWBY is owned by RT and Monty Oum**

 **I don't own RWBY blah blah blah RT will nuke my house, my computer, and my Chinese blah**

 **Special thanks to Kronosmond for beta reading this story, check out his stories** _ **Amber and Chocolate**_ **and** _ **Only Time will Tell**_ **whenever you have the opportunity.**

Chapter 2

Nine days went by, Yang had annoyingly won that bet again, and I didn't even get as much of a glimpse of Jaune. But finally, in a game of dodgerock, he started a conversation.

"Hey, the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." he said this with such a dead tone, I'm pretty sure the Atlesian phone ladies have more emotion than he does.

"I heard you're a girl who's able to locate certain things from time to time." At least Jaune got straight to the point, not wasting time being social, I'm totally chill with that.

"Yeah, I know how to get things, what's it to you?" I replied, making a pose and pulling off a _kool_ look to put as much intimidation into him as much as possible, like I do for all my first-time peeps.

"How do you do it?" he asked. _Well that didn't work._

"You tell me your secret, and I'll tell you mine." I said with a smile.

He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I'm wondering if you can get me a dust pick."

"A pick? Why do you want it?" I was pressing for information; this guy could kill someone with a something like that. I don't want to accidentally cause any more deaths, already caused too many in that incident.

He raised his eyebrows in shock. "Do you frequently make intents a part of your business?" he asked indecorously.

"Only for things that can kill people, I don't want to kill anyone again, whether intentional or unintentional. If you asked for a cup of booze or the latest Spruce Willis movie, I'd just tell you the cost and that'd be it. No troubles there."

"I see, well the dust pick I want is shaped like a tiny pickaxe, about 6 or 7 inches long, and it's commonly used by miners at the end of a mining excursion. It's used to get the dust crystals out of rocks. I had a hobby a while back where I'd take rocks and make fine design patterns, sculptures, and shapes with them, it was a fun hobby and I found it relaxing, especially on that day when-" he kept droning on and on, my eyelids were starting to feel heavy and my head was starting to droop before I was suddenly jolted awake from a rock clocking me in the head.

"Are you okay?" he asked, offering his hand to pull me up.

"Yeah, only my pride got damaged." I replied with a cheeky grin, taking his hand and pulling myself back up.

"So can you get it?"

"It'll be as easy as firing a high-caliber sniper scythe! You'll just have to pay me when it gets here." I excitedly replied, memories of Crescent Rose flooding my head.

"Uh-"

"It'll be as easy as firing a gun." I dumbed it down for him.

"Oh… I never learned how to fire a gun." He admitted, rubbing his hand on the back of his head awkwardly.

"WHAT?! Oh my Oum I need tell you everything, so first before everything you have the bullet itself which if you're dealing with a .38 you need to have a-"

And there I went, completely oblivious to the rest of the world around me as I explained the mechanics of a gun to a guy I just met.

 **PoV: Blake**

I was the only one to notice and care about Yang's normally lilac eyes going red, and glancing to where Yang was furiously glaring at, I immediately knew what was going to happen.

That poor blonde fellow was talking to Yang's sister.

"That… Bastard…" If Yang's aura wasn't compromised from the drugs in the gray goo we were eating, she would've ignited a long time ago.

"Yang, I know what you're thinking, and I know what you're going to do, but I beg of you, DON'T do it. The month you were in Isolation was pretty terrible for me."

"I- I don't- care. I don't care, that lady-killing fucker is talking to Ruby." Yang replied, obviously trying to calmly choice her words while seething in anger.

"We've all killed someone. Why does he make a difference? Plus, someone needs to talk to your sister to encourage business."

Yang gave a deep sigh as her eyes went back from red to lilac and went into that stupid glassy-eye look that usually only happens during our private-time, "P-money was more than a friend to me Blake. I met and fought her in her sixth tournament and lost to her epically, _it was awesome._ Then she got really lusty for me after that for reasons I don't even know, and it was thanks to that one-night stand with her that I discovered I was bi and that she a fetish to those weaker than her."

"That sounds narcissistic." I replied, though this definitely explained her attraction to the Arc, considering he doesn't look that strong in the slightest.

"It was, but we still remained friends after that, even though we had no sexual touchy-feeliness again. Really pisses me off though that _Lady Killer_ just ended her like that, P-money deserved better." Yang said, clearly starting to get irritated again.

The odd silence left after was interrupted by a yelp as Ruby was knocked down by a rock. It all seemed to go in slow motion. Yang's eyes went from lilac to blood red in the literal blink of an eye as she scooped up a rock from the ground and chucked it at breakneck speeds towards the blonde's head.

"YOU'RE DEAD ARC!" Yang roared as the rock left her grip, I could only stand by as it covered the distance in a matter of seconds.

 **PoV: Ruby**

"And finally the hammer strikes, igniting the cap and the gunpowder, creating a chain reaction which sends the bullet out!" I exclaimed like a schoolgirl high on sugar.

"…" I could practically see the smoke pouring out of Jaune's head as he attempted to understand what I was rambling about.

"And that's just for handguns, for sniper rifles, you have a-yelp!" I yelled out as another, much larger rock knocked me to the ground.

"YOU'RE DEAD ARC!" I heard Yang roar out.

"Wait Yang no it's not his fault..." I blearily tried to call out to Yang to no avail.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, and to the shock of everyone in the area around us, Jaune turned around and managed to snatch the rock hurtling towards his head right out of mid-air.

"How long'll it take for it to get here?" he asked while pulling me back up.

"Between two and five days…" I said with wide-eyes, suddenly starting to realize he inattentively waltzed into a game of dodgerock and didn't even get hit once. Lucky guy, I get hit even when I'm trying to dodge.

"Don't worry. I'll pay you back, Arc's word." he said as he walked off, leaving me, Blake, and Yang dumbfounded at what just happened.

"Did he just step into the midst of a dodgerock game and not get hit once?" Blake asked with great wonder, while Yang stupidly had her mouth open like a fish out of water. I could only nod in response.

Jaune's a puzzle, I haven't seen anyone like him before during my stay here. I guess Cardin's never seen someone like him before either, because he took an immediate liking to the resident Master-race members.

I was busy texting Weiss for a dust pick when I overheard that Cardin had apparently tried to pounce on Jaune in the men's showers. Jaune was said to be coated in lotion and shampoo though, so every time Cardin tried to grab him, he'd just slip out of his grip. He won't be so lucky next time though. As much as I hate to admit it, Cardin's not as dumb as he looks. If Cardin were dumb, he'd keep going for the girl inmates, and if one female gets hurt in here, all of the females will be coming to put the hurt on them. To get around this, Cardin instead resorted to relieving his frustrations on the Newbies, which completely went against the official Säbel-doctrine made by Ozpin.

Going back to my conversation with Weiss, she's asking about the new prisoners.

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: weiss bestie u there?_

 _Schneeengle: Oh hey Ruby, been a while since you texted._

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: yea srry about that, yang keeps threatening everyone that talks to me_

 _Schneeengle: Well it looks like someone managed to talk to you, what do they need?_

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: y do you think someone wants something? I could be talking to you from the goodness of my 3_

 _Schneeengle: It's been 6 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days since you last texted, if it was out of the "goodness of your less-than-three" I'd have gotten a message a long time ago. -_-_

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: ah u got me. a newbie wants a dust pick. can u get one for him?_

 _Schneeengle: A Dust pick? Why does he want that? Also how are those Newbies? I heard from Klein you got a new shipment 9 days ago._

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: same old, they're getting violated in the showers by the birds_

 _Schneeengle: …I'm sorry I asked. What are the specifications of the dust pick? There are hundreds of variants ranging from the ones used to break open giant boulders to small ones used to engrave the Schnee emblem on crystals._

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: he said he wanted one that was 6-7 inches_

 _Schneeengle: That's reasonable. I'll send it in a day or two. Klein will be driving the truck._

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: thx weiss, ur the bestest friend ever_

 _Schneeengle: No problem Ruby, just text more please. As nice as Klein and Ironwood are, I can't stand to talk to only them for much longer._

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: dont worry weiss, ill talk more_

 **PoV: Weiss**

I sighed as I finished my conversation with Ruby, it was the first time in months I've talked to someone other than Klein and Ironwood. But finally, after a long hiatus of uninteresting circumstances, I had some rebelling to do.

"Klein." I said, catching the attention of the family butler and second of my three friends. "I need a favor."

"What is it Miss Schnee?" The short butler asked.

"Ruby needs the C3 Dust pick, do you think you can get it for her?"

"Of course, who's it for?"

"Thank you Klein. It's for a newcomer."

I sat back down on my bed, before recalling a detrimental detail about the newest batch of prisoners, and just who was in the line.

 _SchneeAngel: Ruby, did you happen to see a Newbie with blonde hair and blue eyes?_

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: yeah why do you ask?_

 _SchneeAngel: He's very dangerous, according to ABC News, he killed Pyrrha Nikos, the 7-time-Mistral champion and my shitty brother. Whatever you do, DO NOT INTERACT WITH HIM!_

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: k_

 _SchneeAngel: I'm serious, he's nothing but bad news._

 _RlyRlyKoolKid: don't worry weiss, I promise not to mess with him_

 _SchneeAngel: Thank you Ruby._

I put the scroll down on the table before flopping back on the bed, "She's not going to listen to me, just like how she's never going to message me..." I sighed sadly, just counting the specks on the ceiling while waiting patiently for Klein to deliver the package.

 **PoV: Ruby**

I felt really bad lying to Weiss like that, but I had to, I'm not known as a regular RemEx around here for no reason! So when Jaune Arc asks for a dust pick, he's going to get a dust pick, and he's going to get it in a day!

I'm worried about how it'll be used though. Me, Blake, and Yang have all on separate occasions seen Cardin 'messing around' with Jaune. Outsiders or Newbies might just see as insignificant or something that'll go away with time, but long-timers will know that Cardin is sizing up his prey, gaining analysis on his weaknesses before going in on him like a hungry bird. At least Jaune trained with Pyrrha a little bit before she died, he has more of a chance than most. But if Cardin pissed him off too much, I won't be surprised if they found Cardin dead in the laundry rooms with a large gash in his head.

Later, during the second eating-time ( _It's a worse crime to call this junk 'lunch'),_ the four of us all sat around, quiet as mice. Me, Yang, and Blake were looking at the Newbies around us while Jaune just kept picking at his gray gunk, probably thinking that it'll turn into something good if he pokes it long enough. Suddenly, I felt a large bag full of, what could only be Leaves and Flowers, hit my back and explode, sending the flora pieces everywhere onto the table and the food. Unsurprisingly, the gray goo actually looked better with the plant bits in it.

"Hey Rose!" I heard a voice behind me, and scrunched my face as I immediately knew who it was. "We got the shit, now get us iSCHEEs!"

"Oh. You two again." I said as I forced a smile and forced myself turned around to make eye contact.

"Yeah it's us, we got the fuckin leaves and flowers, now it's time for you to call your bitchy friend to get us iSCHEE 2s!"

I picked a few Leaves and a Flower out of my hair, took a good look at them, and finally said to them, "Thrush, Lark, these Leaves and Flowers have gone Rotten, they're worthless."

I inwardly smirked as Thrush and Lark both grew redder than a ripe strawberry, both from me not calling them to their gang names and telling them that their long and hard-worked stash is worthless.

"What the fuck! Do you know how long it fucking took to get all of these?!" The blue-mulleted one yelled.

"Don't know and don't care. You took too long to turn your credits in, and they're worthless _yet again."_ I patiently explained to them, smirking all the while, not even caring to hide it this time.

"Bullshit, we worked hard to get those!" The green-haired one added, completely disregarding my third basic point on the Säbel-exchange, also made official by Ozpin.

"You still missed rule three. Ahem, _'If the currency has gone Rotten, it is deemed worthless by both Ruby Rose AND to other prisoners in exchange or trade.'_ Please learn to read, you've got your entire lives to do that. _"_ I snapped back kooly.

"You know, my high-school teacher always said that history is important, and if you can't learn from it, you're destined to repeat it. What you're doing is inefficient in terms of strategy." Jaune finally spoke from the other side of the table, all while picking at his gray goo.

"Fuck're you saying we're dumb?" Lark threatened, looking ready to plunge his spoon into Jaune's eye.

"No, you said you're dumb, I said you're inefficient. Now Lark-"

"Don't fuckin call me Lark Newbitch, yer gettin raped soon, yer opinion ain't gonna matter. We're the fuckin BIRDS, the roughest, toughest, strongest gang in this prison!"

We all shook our heads and turned back around to see Jaune's reaction, and to our surprise, it's mostly stoic, with a little hint of disgust. Most Newbs would've blown up at least 30 seconds ago.

"…Anyway, why don't you make exchanges with your already existing Leaves and Flowers for other less-expensive things, like a figurine or engraved glass and just trade those back for the SCHEE when you have enough of them?"

Me, Yang, and Blake were all completely stunned at his logic, he actually thought of an intelligent loophole around our system a little over a week since he first came in, now maybe Lark and Thrush will take his advice and finally shut the fu-

"HAW, like that'll ever fuckin work! Nice joking kid, we'll fuck ya slightly less… NOT! HAWHAWHAWHAW! We'll just stick with throwin our shit at Rose till she gives it to us!"

…Or not.

"How long have you been doing this for?" Jaune asked, somehow ignoring the other things the blue-headed dummy said.

"Past seven years or so, she'll give eventually, just trust in us fuckboy." Lark commented, still being stupid as always.

"So wait a minute. Let me get this straight, you did the same exact thing, seven years in a row… And expected a different result?"

"We'll get a different result soon enough fuckboy, Rose'll give us iSCHEEs with our shit!" This was the last thing they said before they walked away, still _HAW_ ing at Jaune's suggestion and whispering amongst themselves, probably planning something really dirty.

Jaune turned to the three of us, our eyes still agape at how quickly he found a loophole in our system that not even Blake could find, and asked, "Is that guy for real?"

To which I replied, "He still doesn't know that the iSCHEE 2 is obsolete. I don't think he even knows that the iSCHEE 9 came out."

He put his face into his hands before moaning, "Crap, this is going to suck…"

We could only feel sympathy for Jaune, knowing that prison life wasn't going to be only thing that would suck soon.

 **A/N**

 **Some other terminologies;**

 **Dodgerock: Dodgerock is a finely engineered and very professional game of hurling rocks at the other inmates until they go unconscious. It can be either played in Teams or Last Person Standing, and is one of many rock-based games in Säbelzahn.**

 **iSCHEE series: The Intensively Sophisticated Computational Hyper-threading Ever-Evolver was made to compete with Scrolls, and eventually drive the distributors out of stock. They're dirt cheap to make, break down easily, give Faunus children cancer, and normally cost over 50,000 Lien (500 dollars), but with a few strings pulled, they can be taken right from the assembly lines, no one'll ever notice it's missing.**

 **Kool: Not to be mistaken with the word** _ **cool**_ **,** _ **kool**_ **describes the expression of furrowing the brow and tilting your head down to look as intimidating as possible to a new person. Mainly used by Ruby, and never works for her due to her height and general kawaiiness despite how** _ **kool**_ **she proclaims herself.**

 **RemEx: Remnantian Express is the largest commercial mail carrier across all the kingdoms; the name inspiration comes from the wing feathers from birds. Ruby, as well as many others outside and in, refers to herself as the regular RemEx thanks to her connections with Weiss and distributions of cool stuff to other inmates, though she's just the post girl to the real courier.**

 **Rot(ten): It's an efficient means of preventing inflation. When the currency 'goes Rotten', it means that Flowers, Leaves, or Mushrooms found, made, or traded literally rot away which renders it worthless to Ruby, in the system, and to other inmates (No one wants to smoke a blunt with white specks on the Leaves or eat moldy Mushrooms).**

 **There are BOUND to be questions as to why Weiss is helping Ruby, a prisoner, give various commodities, technologies, and whatnottities to other prisoners. Why doesn't she hate them? Doesn't she think they should be executed? Why does Klein help her instead of telling her off to Jacquess? I won't answer those questions here, I'd rather leave them develop on their own arcs separate from A/N notes.**

 **To respond to shadowace2400: No, Ruby WASN'T sent to prison for sneezing on Weiss, she was sent for something way more drastic and detrimental in comparison.**

 **To respond to Redsage Horrorwitz: The A/N notes primarily exist to define terms that aren't particularly relevant to the story or explain a concept further for the audience. While elements which remain relevant to the plot are explained by the characters (Such as what happens in Rot) the A/N provides further insight as to what it is and how it's used that can't be explained in the story itself (Ex. A character doesn't know the full details, potential, or capabilities of something)**


End file.
